Ornamentation of rubber



March 4, 1947- T. s. REESE 2,416,344

ORHAIENTATION OF RUBBER Filed Fob. 23, 1942 .FIG. mvmon.

THOMAS .5. REESE BY; d

Patented Mar. 4,

hurrah stares PATENT ORNAMENTA'I'ION F RUBBER homes S. Reese, University Heights, Ohio.

or to The Di-Noc Manufacturing Company :eland, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio a psncation February 23, 1942, Serial'No. 433%? (CI. ll-33) 3 Claims.

This invention relates to the ornamentation of rubber articles and particularly to the decoration of rubber articles by means of transfers bearing the desired design or ornamentation. i

It has heretofore been proposed to decorate rubber articles by means of transfers. At-

tempts have been made, without success, to use ordinary decalcomanias. Also, transfers have been produced in which the designs have been printed with rubber inks, that is, inks in which rubber compounds in solution or suspension have been employed as the vehicle for the pigments.

to handle during the printingcperation, .Fun ther, because 0 e many different types of canizing agents an accelerators used bydifierent manufacturers oi'Yrubber-goods, it is imprac 1 tical'for a manufacturerof transfers-to attempt toduplicate, all of the many; different combine tions of vulcanizing agents and-.acc'elerators,

hence, attempts havejbeeumade to devise ink compounds which will cureproperly under widely difierin'g conditions. 'These: attempts have'not met with any considerable success but rather havegivem at best, only mediocre results.

Prior to my present invention, rubber ink transcanized or cured by heat and pressure in the usual manner. Numerous difficulties have arisen with such transfers because of the fact that the vulcanlzing agents and accelerators in the transfers may not match the vulcanizing agents and accelerators incorporated in the base rubber material, with the result that when the curing operation takes place the efiect of the curing operation is different on the transfers from the effect on the base material. After the completion of the curing operation, the rubber base and the rubber transfer frequently do not have the same characteristics. The transfer may be of less elasticity, for example, with the result that when the rubber is subjected to stretching or bending in service the transfer layer may flake off.

Further difliculties arise from the fact that even at ordinary room temperatures the vulcanizing agents and accelerators have some eiiect upon the inks and upon the transfers. Thus, neither the inks nor the transfers can be stored for any considerable periods of time without changing their characteristics. The changes taking place at room temperature affect the conditions required to obtain correct results in the subsequent vulcanization of the transfers. while changes in the inks may make the mks difiicult fers were also unsuccessful, the transferred de- According to my inventiomall of these difllcuities maybe eliminated and fdurabletransfers inwhich the rubber of the'transfer has theisame characteristics as the rubber of thebase may be produced. This result is accomplished in the light of my discovery that if a thinlayercf uncured rubber; without any vulcanizing agent or accelerator, preferably of the order of not-morethan .010inch in thickness, is appliedto aheavier layer of uncured or partially cured rubber: and

the assembly subjected to a curing or vulcariizing operation, the vulcanizing" agents andi'faccclera tors, if any, of the uncured base material apparently migrate from the base material into the thin adjacent layer to such an extent that they impart tothe layer substantially the same characteristics as the base material, particularly insofar as the flexibility and elasticity of the completed article are concerned. In any event, whatever the underlying reasons may be, the thin rubber layer becomes vulcanized and forms, in effect. an integral part of the base material, indistinguishable therefrom except for the presence of pigments.

Based upon my discovery, I have found that by printing the transfer designs in thin layers with ink composed of a liquid rubber vehicle and suitable pigment, without any vulcanizing agents, accelerators or fillers in the rubber vehicle, I am able to produce transfers which can be stored for long periods of time without change or deterioration and which can be cured along with the rubberbase material to produce finished articles in which the design is permanently joined to the underlying base material, and inwhich the rubber of the design has the same characteristics as the underlying base material so that the design will stand up under very severe usage without deteacres.

1 transfer is illustrated, the base material being assembly of base and design after the vulcaniz- 7 ing or curing operation.

According to a preferred form or my invention I produce the transfer indicated generally at H] in Figure 1 by printing upon a suitable base material H with ink consisting essentially of suitable pigments carried by a dispersion of rubber in a liquid, as the vehicle. The base material may be of gummed decalcomania paper in which case the paper is removed from the transfer after it is applied to the rubber by wetting the paper ber base material either by simply pressing them against the rubber and then stripping oil the paper backing, either witlror without the use of water, depending upon the material of the backing, or by first applying a solvent for rubber to the base material, benzene or gasoline, for ex In Fig ample, being suitable for this purpose. ure 2 the assembly'of rubber base material and indicated at IS, the continuous coating I! being adjacent the base material and the design bear ing layer 12 appearing on the surface. After the transfer has been applied to the rubber base material IS, the assembly is then subjected to the usualcuring or vulcanizing operation. The rubber compound from' which the ,l

. base material is formed contains the usual vuland stripping it, or a material suitable for dry stripping such as glassine paper, for example, may be employed. I

The rubber dispersion preferably consists of a material of the rubber cement type, such as a solution of milled crepe rubber dissolved in xylol,

.toluol or naphtha. Dispersions such as emulsions of latex in water may also be employed.

Suitable pigments'are ground in to the rubber vehicles to give the desired colors. A suitable vehicle of the rubber cement type may be made,

for example, by dissolving 11.1% by weight of milled crepe rubber 88.9% by weight of xylol. Inks may be produced by grinding suitable pig-,- ments in this vehicle. For example 10% by weight of burnt umber and 90% by, weight of the vehicle may be mixed by grinding for 48 hours in a ball mill. Another ink may be produced by grinding 97.5% by weight of vehicle with 2.5% by weight of carbon black for 60 hours in a ball mill.

camzing agents and accelerators, many difierent materials being employed for these purposes.

When the assembly is subjected to heat and pressure during the vulcanizing operation these vulcanizing agents and accelerators apparently migrate from the base material l5 into the layers 14 and I2, imparting to these layers the same characteristics as base material. Thus, the completed article shown in Figure 3 constitutes an 1 integral piece of rubber bearing the desired design,- the only difference infthe characteristics of the rubber being the presence of the pigments,

in the outer film. However; the presence of pig- I ments such as those described above does not resuit in any brittleness inthe transferred film.

By employing my invention, designs with continuously varying tones may be applied to rubber Other pigments of the types ordinarily used in coloring rubber may be employed, the percentages and amount of grinding required varying for diiierent pigments. The inks may be thinned with xylol, toluol or similar materials to proper consistency to lit the printing conditions.-

It is to be noted that no vulcanizing agents or accelerators are employed. The ink thus consists essentially of a liquid rubber vehicle, whether the rubber is in the form of latexor milled rubber, with suitable pigments added thereto. The inks may be printed on the paper to form the design bearin layer 12 of Figure 1 by any convenient printing process. For example, plates of the type used in ordinary rotogravure printing may be employed to produce designs embodying continuous tones, difierent tonal values of the design being diagrammatically illustrated at I212, 421) and Ho in Figures 2 and-3. Other types of intaglio plates may be used, or the ink may be deposited on the paper through a silk screen stencil. Regardless of the method, the transfers are very thin, preferably not more than'about .010 inch in thickness. If desired, several impressions of difierent colors may be made. After the design has been printed upon the paper, the design may be covered by a, continuous coat of rubber M as the final operation in completing the transfer. If desired this may be dusted with a zinc or aluminum stearate to prevent sticking as these materials will dissolve into the rubber during the curing operation, without causing any damage.

The transfers are applied to the uncured rubwithout vulcanizing agents or accelerators, and a qthin layer of. substantiallypure rubber without I v vulcanizing agents-or accelerators,==overlying said goods in such manner that. the design becomes in eii'ect,'a part of the underlying rubber base mav terial. Inasmuch as the inks andtransfers con tain no vulcanizing agents or accelerators, they can be stored for long periods of time without deterioration or change, and further, can be em-. ployed with any'ordinary rubber compound'a. usingany of the usual methods of curing or vulcanizing.

Throughout the specification and claims; .the term rubber is intended to include not'only natural rubbers of various types, but also synthetic rubbers and rubber-like materials. Those skilled in the art will appreciate. that various changes and modifications can be made in myim vention without departing from the spiritand scope thereof, Accordingly, it is to be understood that my patent is notlimited to thepreferred form of my invention described-herein,-or in any I a manner other than'the scope of the appended claims..

Iclaim:

L A transfer comprising a backing sheetdea tachably carryinge, design consisting essehtially' of a thin layer, composed throughout of substantially pure uncured rubber and pigment,

design. l

- 2; A sense. comprising aflbacking sheet ae;

i tachably carrying adesign consisting essentially of a thin layer composed throughoutof substane tially pure uncured rubberjwithout vulcanlzing agents, and a pigment; and'a thin layer-of substantially pure unpigmented rubber without vulcanizing agents, overlying said design.

3. A transfer comprising a backing sheet detachably carrying a printed design consisting essentially of a layer, not exceeding .010 inch in thickness, composed throughout of substantially REFERENCES CREE The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,640,800 Peterson Aug. 30, 1927 1,537,866 Morton May 12, 1925 1,516,598 Grimths Nov. 25, 192 1,597,602 Klein Aug. 2%, 1926 1,607,730

Doughty Nov. 23, 1926 Number 15 Number Name Date McKay Dec. 10, 1033 Ellis Apr. 28, 1936 Crawford June 14, 1938 Bouxdon Dec. 6, 1938 Moody et 0,! Sept. 14, 1937 Slusher Mar. 6, 1934 Moody et a! Feb. 11, 1941 Binmore Sept. 8, 1925 Morris Apr. "7, 1936 Poschel Jan. 30, 1940 Cedwell Oct. 7, 1930 FUREEGN Country Date B1, ,1. 1804-, 

